Tips for Job Seekers in Tech Industry

The job-seeking journey is the most challenging part of an Engineer’s career. You can’t just start applying for jobs, you need a whole preparation for it. The day you decide to enter this phase of your life, you need to start training yourself. Here are some of the tips that can help you through it.

Make a schedule: The first step you need to take is to make a routine from 09 am – 3 pm for 5 business days. Think like you have already started working for an employer. Wake up at 8 am, get ready to sit at your table or working area by 9 am and finish all the work by 3 pm.

Working Area: Choose an area of the house where there is less noise and set up your table nicely that will eventually motivate you to work. Put some motivational quotes on the wall in front of your table, so whenever you feel low or demotivated, you will look up at those posters and it will inspire you. Remove all the things from your working area that distract you for example your phone. Take a mini break of 15-20 mins after every 2 hours. Keep a giant water bottle on your table, sometimes when you feel tired, drink some water, and it will energize you. You can also keep some snacks on your table so that you don’t need to get out of your working area which might distract you. Lastly, in the break time, quickly go out for a walk or stretch.

Apply for Jobs: First, decide how many jobs you want to apply for in a day and be consistent with the number. My advice is not to apply for more than 5 jobs daily. Because if you rush in applying for jobs, you won’t be able to make your application stand out. The most important thing when applying for a job is to customize your resume and cover letter based on the job description. If you are applying for 10-15 jobs daily, then you won’t get the chance to do that and some other tasks that you need to do besides applying for jobs. Save all the customized resumes for different roles (Web Developer, QA Test, Software Engineer, Android Developer, Technical Analyst) to make it easier to apply for related positions the next time. The second most important thing is keeping track of your job search.  To do that simply make an Excel sheet with 7 columns (Company name, application date, application channel, position, heard back? Next Step, Notes). The application channel is LinkedIn, Indeed or any other job board from where you heard about the job opening. If there is anything important you want to remember from the job application, write it down under the ‘Notes’ column.

Research about the Industry and Companies: Apply for jobs is not only enough. You need to keep yourself around the industry news, how the industry is evolving, what new technologies are rolling out, which technologies are most demanding at the current time, job market updates etc. Read magazines, and articles, watch news, vlogs, and tech events. Moreover, research about the companies is very effective here. Find out new tech companies in your area, make a list of them, visit their careers site, bookmark them in your browser and then visit those sites to see if there is any new job posting related to your interests.

Work on your Portfolio: When you apply for jobs, you provide your portfolio link for the employer to see your work, therefore you need to prepare them professionally. The most important 2 portfolio sites are LinkedIn and GitHub. If you have your website, that’s a plus point. Make sure you add all your projects to your GitHub account, make them Public, and add Readme files. Write a blog post about your industry and skills on your website. Make connections with professional people in your field through LinkedIn. You can also have a Twitter account, which is also considered a professional site. Do your best to advertise your potential in your portfolio sites.

Learn new Skills: When applying for jobs if you notice that one skill is required by multiple job postings, but you don’t have the skill, then start teaching yourself that skill. In this modern era, you don’t need to worry about how to learn a skill. There are tons of learning sites both paid and unpaid. Choose and educate yourself and get the skill. So the next time you see that skill is required for a position, you are confident enough to apply for it. You can also start working on an innovative project which might leverage your portfolio.

Leetcode: Practice, practice and practise. Practice leetCode questions to make yourself prepared for the technical interviews. Choose a topic for a day and practice the leetCode question for 1 hour every day.

Keep all this work in your 9 am – 3 pm schedule and be consistent. Work all 5 business days and chill on the weekends. Good Luck!